YOU CAN COUNT ON HIM
ACTS 9:10-31 CHILMARK COMMUNITY CHURCH JUNE 4, 2017
Rev. Armen Hanjian
What does one say to his congregation after years of connection and two years as a pastor here? After some thought I came to the conclusion my message should be simply this: Put your trust in Jesus. Base your whole life, your actions, your thoughts, your words, your relationships, your whole life around Jesus. You can trust your lives into his keeping. You can count on him.
“It’s so hard to find people you can count on these days.” That is a statement I’ve often heard. The early church had people you could count on and this church has people you can count on.
Use your imagination for a moment and picture the walled city of Damascus. Paul is in the city, he who once persecuted the followers of Jesus, now made an about face and became a defender of the faith. His message was that Jesus was the hoped for Messiah. Some of the Jews were convinced Paul was right, some wondered, and some planned to take action to still this disruptive voice of Paul’s.
The friends of Paul sensed the danger and aided him in a night escape. Picture it. They put Paul in a basket and lowered him with a rope over the city wall and freed him to become the saint and missionary he became. We don’t know who they were up on that wall at the other end of that rope, but we know Paul could count on them.
What was the greatest thing about the early Christians? Not their wealth. Not their schooling. Not their social position. The greatest thing about the early Christians, the distinguishing characteristic was their fellowship. They were a brotherhood and a sisterhood who loved and trusted and served each other. “How these Christians love one another,” was the commentary made by the world in which they lived.
These Christians were like the ancient Teutonic tribe – they used to go into battle with the whole tribe roped together. When one member suffered all suffered, when one was victorious all rejoiced. Christianity was not launched by one St. Paul or by the twelve Disciples alone; it was launched and it has been sustained by a fellowship – persons who could count on each other.
Many of the friends of the Chilmark Community Church have recently said to Vicky and me, “Oh, you have done so much for this church.” Then they go on to say other kind things, but, you know, when you see a turtle on a stump, you know it didn’t get there by itself.
The richness of this church in the past year particularly, has been the fact that so many of us could count on each other. That faithfulness is like that which President Lincoln displayed when the fortunes of the Federal States were at their lowest in the Civil War. Lincoln was the target of all kinds of abuse. A friend said to him, “Why not resign and let them sink or swim?” To which Lincoln slowly replied, “ If I resign they perish.”
We care about one another, so we can count on one another. Sometimes this has meant work when we didn’t feel like work. The composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky one wrote this in his diary: Worked without any inspiration, but successfully.” Such fidelity to our life together out ranks inspiration among the marks of a Christian life.
The early Christian Church had people that could be counted on; this church has a growing number of people that can be counted on. The good news is that what they had and what we have is a Lord, a teacher, a leader, a friend, a Spirit that can be counted on.
I read of a poor women who earned her living by hard labor, but who was a joyous Christian. “Ah Nancy,” said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, “It is well to be happy now; but suppose, for instance, you should have a spell of sickness, and be unable to work; or suppose your present employer should move away and no one should give you anything to do, or suppose….” “Stop!” cried Nancy. “I never suppose. The Lord is my Shepherd, and I shall not want. And you know dear, it is all those supposes that are making you so miserable. You had better give them all up and just trust the Lord.
Believers are always joyful, but who ever heard of a joyful supposer?”
Communion offers us the same chance to put our trust in another as did a guide in the Alps that saw this timid, fearful soul hesitate at a demanding point in the climb.
The guide bent down, braced himself and said, Take it!
That hand has never lost a man!”
My message to you is simply this: Put your trust in Jesus. You can count on him. That hand has never lost a man or a woman in 2000 years.